The OCULL Executive is pleased to announce a new policy around the Annual General Meeting and Retreat day that has positive implications for staff at our institutions.

The OCULL Executive will allocate $1,000 annually to a Staff Bursary internal account to provide funds for OCULL staff members to attend professional development opportunities (such as the retreat, AGM, a meeting of a Community of Practice, etc). Four Bursaries values at $250 each are available annually.

The purpose of this bursary initiative is to allow more staff participants to attend OCULL programming and events. To qualify, the recipient must:

Be a staff member at an OCULL member institution;

Be a secondary participant at an event, such that Deans and Directors do not qualify for the bursary;

Select the ‘Apply for Bursary’ check-box on their registration form;

Reside and or work more than 300 kilometers driving distance from the site of a meeting and/or programming event.

Apply in advance of attending the event in question.

Should more than four participants apply and qualify for the staff bursary, decisions will be made by lottery. The lottery process will subsequently ensure that no institution (should the applicants be from more than four individual institutions) receive more than one bursary.

Individual bursaries are available to a maximum of $250 to covery any combination of the following allowable travel expenses:

One night accommodation

Parking

Meals

Gas

Transportation including any one of the following: Bus, train, airfare, or personal vehicle mileage at $0.40 per KM.

The expense claim form must be forwarded with original receipts within 30 days of the event. Please note: The OCULL Staff Development Bursary is directed toward expenses associated with travel only as outlined above and event registration fees are not considered an allowable expense.

The OCULL Executive will normally limit the cost per participant associated with the registration fees of any event to FIFTY dollars. Host institutions are encouraged to maintain costs within this range. Should the cost of hosting an event be higher than FIFTY dollars per person, the OCULL Executive agrees to cover the costs of any additional amount up to $1000. Costs that exceed the additional $1000 will may be approved by the Executive only is requested before an event has occurred. At the discretion of the Executive, other events, where costs are higher as a result of special speakers or location, may be priced higher than fifty dollars per participant.

If an event has to be cancelled because of low enrollment, the Executive agrees to cover the cost of cancellation fees, if any, associated with the host institution.

OCULL will cover the costs associated with the travel of the MTCU representative at any meeting or programming event at a rate of $0.40 per kilometer OR up to $250 for airfare if the event is held more than three hours driving distance from Toronto.